Any recommendations of a good Linux OS Distro?
Friday, December 11th, 2009 at
16:34
I have been working on Windows OS since I can remember. And Mac computers throughout my student career. And I want to try out linux and get the full feel of it. I recently(yesterday) acquired Ubuntu 9.10 . And so far I enjoy it. But I was curious what other free distrobutions of linux are there? And what would be the better one for someone who wants to create multimedia? IE Art Images, Music, Animation, 3D Models? Keep in mind Im still new to this.
Tagged with: 3d models • art images • Linux • mac computers • music animation • student career • windows os
Filed under: Linux
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I thoroughly recommend Linux Mint 8 Main Edition which is built upon Ubuntu 9.10 Its easy to install and easy to use plus it comes with much of the software you are likely to need preinstalled
Linux Mint 8 Download
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=44
The Perfect Desktop – Linux Mint 8 (Helena)
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-linux-mint-8-helena
You download the ISO. image of Linux Mint 8 then you need to create a Bootable LiveCD for installation
Linux Mint 8 can also be run direct from the LiveCD from Booting up without touching your Hard Drive
INSTALL LINUX MINT WITHIN WINDOWS (not currently available for Linux Mint
To install Linux Mint within windows you will need the earlier release Linux Mint 7 which is built upon Ubuntu 9.04
Linux Mint 7 Download
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38
Linux Mint 7 has a feature called mint4win based on the Wubi installer (Ubuntu) which enables you to install Linux Mint within windows (Windows 7 run Wubi/mint4win in vista compatability mode)
Mint4Win – A Wubi based Installer for Linux Mint
http://duncsweb.com/2009/09/27/mint4win-a-wubi-based-installer-of-linux-mint/
Installing Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi
You keep Windows as it is, mint4win only adds an extra option to boot into Linux Mint. mint4win does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application.
mint4win like Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.
Boot in to windows insert the LiveCD you have just created and you will offered the option of installing inside windows which is where mint4win comes in, you will be asked how many gigabytes you wish to allocate to Linux Mint (I recommend 8gb) then you set a password for your installation then click install and thats it.
Once Linux Mint 7 is fully installed upon starting your PC you will be given a choice of which operating system you want to use Windows or Linux Mint
CURRENT SESSION
Linux Mint 8 ext4 with switchable Beryl 0.2.1* and Compiz 0.8.4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_(window_manager)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz
*Beryl 0.2.1 sourced from Ubuntu 7.04 repositories
LUg.
Linux is not Windows OR Mac OS X and I think you should wait and see if you get a paradigm shift. What kind of paradigm shift? Back in ’94 when I was first getting into computers I asked someone what his os was and he said "it used to be linux but I changed it." Personally I don’t own a computer whose kernel I didn’t compile myself anymore, and the differences between distros while real are by NO means as significant as they are between Windows and Mac OS X etc.
It is an excellent idea to use synaptic or other update software at least weekly, because while Linux is safer than Windows security problems are always cropping up which the maintainers are always fixing, Ubuntu is as good an OS as any and if you use it long enough you will find that with what you put in and what you take out you will essentially have a good multimedia OS. If you want to know about the technical side of things you can look up apodio or dyne:bolic ( http://www.dynebolic.org ) which are respectively a little more advanced and much more eccentric than Ubuntu, but that said it really isn’t worth while to hunt around until you know one or more.
You can run Photoshop with Wine, if you want to print your images commercially. GIMP is lousy at creating CMYK images (actually you can do it and professionally, but it’s a HASSLE). So for printing I don’t recommend it. I actually do recommend inkscape for vector drawing — but you can run it on any OS:
http://www.inkscape.org
For desktop publishing you MIGHT try scribus:
http://www.scribus.org
It’s not InDesign but not much is.
For music try audacity.
Animation and 3d try blender. I never tried to get Flash working on Linux (the paid version). I’m sure you could. THERE ARE NO GOOD OPEN SOURCE ALTERNATIVES. Avoid Synfig like the plague.
You should be able to use synaptic to find and install all of these. Have fun.
Ubuntu, Mint or Mandriva are the best for Workstation Use. The others would be used for system administration or dedicated servers.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://www2.mandriva.com/
Ubuntu has the best catalog prepackaged software and repositories, as do most Debian based Distros.
For an RPM repository distro, try openSUSE, Fedora or CentOS.
You can always pick a distro with a Distro Chooser
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/
I would personally stick with Windows or install Ubuntu using Wubi. If you must use Linux, AVOID the KDE desktop because it is just weird compared to the GNOME desktop (Default Ubuntu UI)
This is a nice website to find alternative software for Linux
http://alternativeto.net/
Ubuntu is by far the easiest to use, and any good Linux distributions can let you experience all the power of Linux. If you wanted to move towards slightly more complicated (but not scary) distributions, then you could try one of the following:
- Debian (Ubuntu was built from that, it officially only "supports" free software though)
- Slackware (Not always the most up-to-date, but it prefers stability over being cutting edge)
- Look at http://www.distrowatch.com
Anyways, Linux does have some issues it still needs to work out concerning media arts. However, I would look at the Blender Project (http://www.blender3d.org). It’s one of (if not the) the best, entirely free and open source 3D modelling and animation software for Linux.
Ubuntu Studio
Try some of the various Live CD’s before formatting your hard drive.
http://www.livecdlist.com/
Ubuntu Studio is GREAT for multimedia =)
another nice one that looks similar to Windows is Linux Mint, and Ultimate Edition is good for someone wanting a lot of effects (it’s almost identical to Ubuntu).